Friday, January 04, 2013

In 2011 I started following several DIY blogs completely enthralled by the ideas they posted. All the old, worn out furniture that they transformed into beautiful furniture to decorate their homes "frugally" were amazing. I read blog after blog and spent countless hours on pinterest. What kept me from trying my own transformation was my Type A, OCD personality that didn't want to do something that wouldn't be "perfect".

Refurbished China Hutch - After

This china hutch was my first refurbished project. I bought the hutch off craigslist for $50 and completely forgot to take a before picture of it before we tore it apart. Looked great in the photo, the guy said it was wood. It's not! So the first thing to tackle was how to paint laminate. I used oil based primer before the latex color.

China hutch before - not actual, but closest I could find!

The baker's rack we took out of the room had a wine rack, and we used it - so I knew I wanted to do something with this hutch. I got the idea to take out the middle door and turn that into a wine rack. Um... that was not as easy as I thought! My husband had to cut out the middle shelf (of course I wanted to keep it on the two side doors) - and support it. Then I found a wood wine rack for $3 at a garage sale and painted it. The wine rack wasn't a perfect fit of course, so we had to cut it down (basically remake it) for it to fit!

Example of the amount of work that went into it. Much more than I expected!

All in all, this first project took a lot longer, and more work than I thought! But I'm so pleased with the results! I really wanted to distress it just a little, but my husband doesn't really like that look, and since he cheerfully (for the most part) helped with all the modifications that were needed I honored his request. :)

Saturday, March 10, 2012

I just purchased this deal through Living Social 50% off! and already printed out my next week's meals planner, and the shopping list. This is THE BEST meal planner I've seen - it gives you a full rounded meal, and bases it on what is on sale that week at the store you pick!